A Year in Sports Marketing with Bayli Stefl

Over the past year, GumGum Sports has flourished. From scaling out to 50+ employees to growing our client base to over one-third of the US sports market, 2019 was our year to make a splash. Since rejoining GumGum Sports about a year ago, Bayli Stefi has led our marketing team across many successful campaigns. I sat down with Bayli for a deep dive into her experience working in sports marketing this year.

What was your marketing background before GumGum Sports? What from your past experience has helped most this year?

Before GumGum Sports, I worked at GumGum for three years on the advertising side at the beginning of my career. I owned creation of GumGum’s digital marketing channels; I launched social channels and the company’s first 3 targeted campaigns. Additionally, I was responsible for the implementation of HubSpot, a tool to manage full lead flow from marketing to SalesForce. After departing to try my hand at marketing for a startup in eCommerce, I realized how much I missed the team feel and availability of marketing resources. Marketing from the ground up with no resources requires grit. Since returning to GumGum, I’ve learned how best to maximize marketing opportunities with a scaled budget.

What challenges were faced in the first few months, and how did you overcome them?

Evaluating the lead flow process was my first obstacle. Sports is a very “lead-gen” focused industry, but there was no internal process in place for a marketing funnel. To revamp the process, I met with sales reps to understand lead flow and analyzed the HubSpot and Salesforce databases to develop a more streamlined solution. Additionally, I came into GumGum Sports with a pre-set 2019 quarterly budget with many initial decisions made. Over the past year, I’ve worked to understand relationships with marketing vendors to utilize the established budget as best we can. I’m looking forward to having more influence in budgeting for 2020.

What were the most successful marketing events in 2019?

Leader’s London is one of the world’s premiere sports marketing events. The GumGum Sports UK team and I held over 40 meetings with existing and potential clients, while listening to sessions from the world’s leading sports influencers. It was fun and productive! We also hosted the Pretzel Cart Happy Hour at the Excel Sports Management offices, where we served a pretzel and beer pairing. This event was a great example of in-person relationship building with clients.

What are some of your 2020 goals, both personally and for GumGum Sports marketing?

Personally, I’m looking forward to going into 2020 with more involvement in marketing planning and decision-making. I also look forward to working with the UK team and sales team to understand how GumGum can become a thought leader in our industry. On the customer side, I’d like to continue focusing on delighting our customers every step of the journey. Our fun, productive events should focus on treating our clients as partners.